Iakovos Nafpliotis

Iakovos travelled to Constantinople at the age of seven, where he was acclaimed for his exceptional vocal quality and was ordained as canonarch at the church Saint Nicholas.

They, in turn, had heard their predecessors: Daniel from Tyrnabos, Iakovos Giakoumakis from Peloponnesos, Petros Byzantios, and Gregorios the Levite.

During this period, Iakovos contemplated leaving Constantinople, given that some Greeks had doubts as to his right to remain on the Patriarchal analogion in terms of his citizenship, which (fortunately) did not seem to be an issue for the Turkish authorities.

During live, ecclesiastical performances of these hymns in the Patriarchate, the interpretations were slightly more vivid, due in part to a variety of rhythmic nuances, yet never too far off from the actual recordings.

The patriarchal paedagogy of Iakovos, which was based in past on o/aural memory transmission, there was one other particularity, that of "chronos" and the way it was counted, which he managed to transmit to at least one of the few students who had the opportunity to be his disciple ever since a young age (Stylianos Tsolakidis, the others being Constantinos and Leontios Boudouris).

Other students who studied at a later age (e.g. Angelos Boudouris, Anastasios Michaelides "Sobatzis", Konstantinos Pringos, Georgios Karakasis) were also permeated with many of the elements of Iakovos’ Majestuous Patriarchal style ("hyphos").

Although most of the chanters of Constantinople had good intervals and attacks (which is not the case of most chanters of today), their "politikon hyphos" or "style" is not to be confused with the "patriarchal style", where the repertoire chanted was different not only in composition (usually of abbreviated nature) as compared to some classical editions, but in terms of chronos counting (divided ("dieremenos"), unitary ("monosimos"), simple ("haplos"), complex ("synthetos" or "syneptigmenos chronos" which is not to be confused with syneptigmenos "rhythmos"), free ("elevtheros"), callophonic etc.

According to Angelos Boudouris, Iakovos Nafpliotis was a standard of psaltiki that most other chanters acknowledged and respected, which is attested to by the fact that they would meet at the Patriarchal church approximately once a month so as to continue benefiting from this master's knowledge.

[citation needed] Notwithstanding the foregoing, the best representative of the "Πατριαρχικὸν ὕφος |Patriarchal Style" as referred to by Boudouris, was Iakovos Nafpliotis.

Differences between the "Πατριαρχικὸν ὕφος |Patriarchal Style" of Iakovos Nafpliotis and the "Kamarados" school (as represented by Nileus Kamarados and his student Antonios Syrkas and followers such as the late Georgios Syrkas and the current Archon Protopsaltis of Canada, Constantinos Lagouros) are slightly greater, and Angelos Boudouris' criticisms were restrained to knowledge of how and when particular hymns were to be chanted.

Iakovos also met and heard Simon Karas,[4] a music researcher whose ideas and "style" of chanting is known worldwide but is also contested by many (namely the Hypermachos Association) in Greece.

[5] Simon Karas is one of the few musicians that Iakovos Nafpliotis, who was otherwise very conservative, even in the number of words he'd utter, criticizes overtly by stating the following: The teacher has formed the opinion that Karas is an intellectual man ("λόγιος - logios") with a desire to work on the matters of our music, of which music he happens to be a fan and supporter ("θιασώτης καὶ ὑποστηρικτὴς - thiaswtis kai hyposthrikths"), even though he is not acquainted with it (" ἂν καὶ δὲν τὴν γωνρίζει - an kai den thn gnwrizei").

[6]Iakovos Nafpliotis' opinion is at the center of a flaming current debate, as Simon Karas had collected information concerning oral tradition, much in the same way as other renowned musicologists of his time (for instance Spyridon Peristeris in Athens[7] and Kallinikos Theodoulos in Cyprus[8]).

In spite of the worldwide recognition of Simon Karas' musicological positions, which are heralded by many of his students and followers, many are those who hang on to Iakovos' opinion, given the latter's excellence in the practice of ψαλτικὴ ("psaltiki" or "the psaltic art").